About Free Music Archive

The Free Music Archive wants to wish Creative Commons a Happy Birthday with a song. But there's a problem. Although "Happy Birthday To You" is the most recognized song in the English language and its origins can be traced back to 1893, it remains under copyright protection in the United States until 2030. It can cost independent filmmakers $10,000 to clear the song for their films, and this is a major stumbling block hindering the creation of new works of art.

The top three winners according to our incredible panel of judges will be all dressed up and distributed to the most powerful media companies on earth with colorful, Ross Perot-style financial incentive charts encouraging the recipients to better their bottom line by using one of these shiny new Happy Birthday replacement tracks. WFMU will organize and pay for the digital and physical mailings of the three winning tracks to the luckiest people on earth including movie studios, theater troupes, restaurant chains, sports leagues, scouting associations, youth groups, minor league baseball teams, major league Jai Alai squads, and bowling alleys. We’ll also send the tracks to music journalists, bloggers and radio stations to help get the word out and cement the new songs into the cultural subconscious.

The CDs will be accompanied by a letter explaining that "Happy Birthday To You" is under strict copyright protection, and encouraging the recipient to use the CD under the terms of Creative Commons Attribution. Together, this is our best shot at dethroning "Happy Birthday To You" at long last.

On the Creative Commons Birthday Site, the Free Music Archive's Jason Sigal tells the story of how Chris Zabriskie started licensing his music under CC-BY and, in the process, opened new professional doors in his music career.

MORE ABOUT CC-10

In December 2002, Creative Commons released its first set of copyright licenses for free to the public. In the years following the initial release, Creative Commons and its licenses have grown at an exponential rate around the world. The licenses have been further improved and ported to over 50 jurisdictions. With some major platforms adopting the Creative Commons licenses and version 4.0 of the licenses around the corner, this anniversary is the perfect opportunity to celebrate the amazing material that is released under Creative Commons Licenses.

This contest is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.